By: Besa Gordon

On Wednesday, the seventh annual Google Tech Exchange cohort wrapped up in Seattle with a closing ceremony hosted at Google's South Lake Union campus. And of course, I was there to soak in all the vibes. For those unfamiliar with the Google Tech Exchange, the program is designed to prepare historically underrepresented groups in the tech industry–including Black, Latino, and Native students–for internships and full-time roles working in technology by providing computer science skills and community through virtual classes, one-on-one mentoring with Googlers, career planning support, and milestone trips to Google offices. This year, 180 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) participated in the program.

As someone who has always loved tech, I wonder what my life would be like if I got into a program like this after high school rather than going to college for Radiology because that's what my mom wanted for me. It's so important to have people of color in the tech field, especially these days, as we are now starting to use AI more than ever. I remember a report about soap dispensers, not dispensing soap to people with darker skin and another report of AI not recognizing the faces of some of the most iconic black women like Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Serena Williams.

While at the ceremony, I talked with Tech Exchange Technical Program Manager Ernest Holmes about the importance of having people of color in tech, "We make products that impact billions of people on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis. And if we want those products to be useful and beneficial to all kinds of people, we need all kinds of people creating those products as well. So that means diversity [not only] in the school of thought, but race, background, and socioeconomic status."

I also asked Ernest why programs like this are so important "Our team is actually called Education Equity. And the programs began when we realized that students, specifically students at HBCUs, needed to have more equity and learn the technology to make sure that they're seeing and learning the skill sets that they need to be to keep up with companies like Google. This is like the perfect example of us putting our time and money resources where our mouth is, taking the time to invest in these students and making sure that they feel not only intellectually competent to be at a company like Google, but they also feel like they belong at a company like Google."

In the building that day also was Representative Reed (Vice Chair of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee) and Representative Slatter (Chair of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee) Google Engineering Executive Travis McPhail and more.

Over 80% of students in this year's cohort voted on Seattle as their preferred location for the program finale, citing Seattle's position as major tech hub. According to Axios, Seattle is the #1 most desired city for post-grads to live in. Seattle is also host to Google's largest engineering hub outside of California's Bay Area.

Applications for the next Tech Exchange program will open later this fall. Learn more:

https://buildyourfuture.withgoogle.com/programs/tech-exchange